We're Going to Disney World

January 2015 I started planning our family vacation to Disney World for August 2015.  This was a trip we talked about taking for years and finally felt like this was a great time to go.  The kids were at perfect ages to enjoy their trip, really take it all in, and understand the magnitude of what Disney World was all about.  I used a Disney travel agent, Dana, with Your Fairytale Vacations, that a friend of mine recommended and I can't even describe how much she helped make our trip truly "Magical".  She was always there to guide me with options and kept our focus on things that were important or mattered for our first trip.  I shared with her attractions and activities I knew we wanted to do and she helped me create a schedule that worked for all of us.  I just can't say enough about how wonderful it was to not plan this huge trip on our own!  We were extremely happy with her!  Not to mention, the amount of personal time she gave to us, whether it was quick texts back and forth or 2 hour phone calls... she was there offering her services!  

So... we decided to surprise the kids with our trip in an effort to prevent all the weeks and days leading up to the trip of hearing, "Are we leaving today? when do we get to go? what are we gonna do?" etc, etc.  However, we also knew our kids weren't really gonna know what Disney World was so we spent the months prior to our trip finding ways to introduce them to Disney World being a place, where characters from their favorite movies and tv shows are, how you can ride various rides, etc.  We would randomly show them Youtube videos about stuff, or every commercial we saw we used it as a teaching moment.  Eventually, we realized if we told them we were going to Disney World they would at least know it was a place that existed and is fun! 

We found it was easier and cheaper for us to drive to Dallas and fly a direct flight via Southwest from Dallas to Orlando!  We drove to Dallas Saturday afternoon and told the kids we were gonna stay at a hotel.  They had no idea the back of the truck was filled with suitcases and that mom and dad had been ninjas all week hiding clothes and packing belongings.  That was extremely fun to do!  We went to bed somewhat early since we had to be awake at the crack of dawn.  It was 6am when we were surprising the kids in the hotel room. Brooks had them in the bathroom brushing their teeth and fixing their hair while I set up their Disney themed clothes and their new travel backpacks on a bed. To help their focus be Disney... I brought every Disney character we had from home and laid them throughout their new stuff.  When the kids walked into the room and saw all their stuff they were "excited". They were definitely more interested in their new gifts then recognizing what they meant.

In all reality- I should have just said, "okay kids we're going to disney world .... get dressed and lets go!"  Instead there were several minutes before the below video of me asking them questions and trying to prompt them which only led to Brooks giving me a gesture of "hurry this along, babe!".  In all honesty, even when we told the kids, their reactions didn't surprise me.  Notice they just stared at me.  Miles eager excitement was solely because he wanted the noise maker I had in my hand. I just rested in the idea that once we got their and they saw Disney World, their excitement would eventually come!  And... it did!!

The kids are pro's when it comes to airplane rides and traveling so we really were excited that the next few hours being a piece of cake and the kids were pumped about their new rolling suitcases and all the fun goodies they had never seen that were inside those backpacks!

We all got to sit across from each other on the same row.  Brooks took the boys and Brooklyn and I sat together.  Domestic flights for us are kinda a joke (and I don't mean that insensitively) so the kids were rockstars when it came to hanging out, being entertained, and playing with their new toys! Within a few hours we landed in Orlando and ended up eating lunch at the airport since we had a little while before check in at our resort was!  At some point horrible, horrible, horrible weather hit Orlando.  You couldn't see outside the airport windows because of how black the sky was and the tremendous amount of heavy rain.  The airport lights went out for 10-15 minute intervals at a time so we just hunkered down a bit.   Eventually, we made our way towards the Magical Express transportation and headed to Disney World, it was still raining, but didn't look like hurricane weather anymore.  

At this point, it was 2pm and we had been up since 5:30am.  It was nap time and kids were a little tired, yet the excitement for what was to come, kept anyone from falling asleep!

Once we arrived near our resort, the rain was continuing to pour!  Mom and dad had to mentally prepare ourselves for all the rain that was to come!

We decided to stay at the Polynesian resort for several reasons. 1)I remember staying their years ago and loved it 2) It's one of the resorts on the monorail, which I just felt like with the kids at the age they were and taking the double stroller everywhere it would make life EASY!

When we got checked in, I had surprise bags for the kids that we gave them filled with their autograph books I made, mickey ears (from their bday parties last year), stuffed animals I bought on sale, and some glow in the dark bracelets, necklaces, and sticks for the evening parades.  I think it brought more excitement for the kids and made them ready for the week!

Eventually, our bags arrived, we got situated in the room, covered up in rain gear and headed out to Epcot to spend the evening!  

Our summer in Borger

For our time in Borger this summer we stayed busy.  However, we also spent a lot of days at home playing, goofing off, and just being together!  I loved this season of life and the kids ages.  They really do great together and enjoy being with one another!  The little ones loved having Gavin home from school.  

Here's some highlights of our time in Borger:

- 4th of July fun (see other post all about our fun day)

- We bought a blow up pool to have on hot summer days, which was a HUGE hit with the kids!  

- The kids found a turtle wandering the neighborhood so he came and lived in our backyard for a week or two, until one day we came home and he was gone.  They loved looking for "Foxy" and generally found him walking the fence daily. 

-  Naptime meant alone time with Gavin, which I realized how much I've missed that while he was in school!

- Lazy mornings meant fixing your own breakfast.. check out Brooklyn's willingness to pour her own bowl of cereal.

- MILES spent time teaching Brooklyn the ends and outs of timeout and the need to obey mommy's words (I think he's had lots of practice)

- The kids took swimming lessons and did an amazing job learning important skills.  Besides the water being freezing-- they loved it!

Our church had VBX and we had an awesome turn out.  It was held in the evenings and an absolute blast.  Brooks signed he and I up to be in charge of and work the games portion of VBX!  That meant we saw ALL the kids and got to play with each one of them!  The best part was that Brooks didn't realize he had business meetings in Houston that week and unfortunately he missed out on a few evenings!  This picture describes me after one of those nights... I sent this to him via phone without a caption!  While I was exhausted and it was hard word, it was a BLAST and we loved living our old camp days together playing with all the kids!

A few times we needed to go to Amarillo so I made sure to let the kids have some fun!  I'd bring a baby sitter with us and we'd go to Chucky Cheese in between running errands.  The kids would have a blast and would be exhausted on our way home!  

We potty trained Brooklyn, which wasn't THAT hard, except trying to teach her only boys teetee outside standing up!  She still hasn't figured that out!

The weather was gorgeous and Brooks had a few weekends opened for us to work on our landscaping.  I'll be completely honest... other then going and picking out plants and buying the soil and mulch, Brooks did it ALL!  He has a better vision and idea for it all and gardening has NEVER been my thing so I let him have at it!  It all looks awesome!

Something I did do was unpack our LAST box from our shipment from August 2013.  We've had our shed out back full of junk and odds and ends that had no where to go and didn't need any immediate attention.  I pretty much neglected it all since it was out of sight out of mind, but Brooks was ready to build cabinets in the garage and we needed to move some of that stuff into the shed, which required it to get some attention.  It felt GREAT getting that taken care of and to feel like we were officially moved in... after a year of living here!

Over all, it was a great summer in Borger.  

Baseball

This spring, Gavin had the opportunity to play tee- ball and Brooks was the assistant coach.  Their team  practiced a couple of times and then had 16 games in a matter of a few weeks.   Whew!  This meant for at least 3 nights a week our family was at the baseball fields.  Gavin picked right up where he left off last year playing in Saudi and had some great technique and skills!  We were pretty impressed!  For the most part, Gavin played at the pitchers position or first base.  He even got to play short stop and third a few times and did extremely well fielding the ball!!  It was fun to watch him improve over time and continue gaining a better understanding of how the game fully works.  The teams didn't play with strikes and balls since it was tee ball and depending on the opponents team, sometimes you could get out, and sometimes you could stay on base.  No matter what though, if you were your teams last batter then you automatically could run all the bases!  Hmmm...  We did have a great team and everyone played their hearts out-- wait, who am I kidding... Brooks and the other coach were constantly telling kids to stand up, quit playing in the dirt, watch the ball, ignore the train passing by, etc, etc...  but the kids still had fun!  Gavin was a little more serious about playing when he was on the field so they were rarely having to get him to focus!  

Eventually, Miles was tired of sitting on the bleachers and wanted in the dugout.  Before we knew it, he was standing in the field behind Brooks, then tried fielding some balls and making a few plays.  By the last 4 or 5 games Miles got to be bat and run the bases!  We always got permission from the other teams coach and their players were good sports to cheer Miles on and not get him out!  Then... Brooklyn decided she wanted in the dugout with all the players and not sit on the bleachers anymore, but that's as far as we let her get!!  Maybe a few more years!

Gavin loved baseball and missed it on his days off!  The kids play ball every single day in our back yard and know the fundamentals of baseball so well, they all correct each other and motivate each other to try again!!  

Easter Celebrations

Easter week was a special time for us and we spent time really focused on teaching the kids what Easter was all about.... Jesus dying on the cross and his resurrection!  Our church held Easter festivities throughout the week including a Maundy Thursday service.  I had the priveilege of being a part of the service and by God's grace, had my sweet husband and his creative brother, Bran who helped write, develop, and create the material I performed for our church.  I was approached 2 weeks prior to the service to see if I could perform a type of spoken word poem, I agreed, and then anxiously began studying what spoken word poems were, how to perform then, and after a week of not finding any SWP regarding the two subjects they wanted, we set out on writing our own.  It was a neat process and extremely humbling to express thoughts of Judas betraying Jesus and what Jesus endured during the days leading to his death.  I share one of the two videos with all of you and in a very vulnerable way... but pray that the words penetrate ones heart, even after the Easter season!  For some reason my youtube video won't pull up, so you'll have to click on the link below.

http://youtu.be/qFFBrzEID6c    

We were fortunate to get to spend another holiday with family, something we weren't able to do much while living in Saudi.  A few weeks before Easter while talking to my parents I offered to them to come spend some time at our house and they agreed!  We decided to plan a few things to do together and first on our list was to go to Cadillac Ranch- its a place where there are 10 Cadillacs that were buried into the ground and instantly became a tourist attraction.  People from all over are encouraged to bring spray paint cans and "decorate" the cars, which we did!!!  

The kids loved, loved, loved getting to do this.  Thankfully, I thought to bring a paint holder gun to make it easier for the kids to use and it came in handy!  Miles was beside himself by the fact that he could actually spray the car and laughed hysterically while he did it!  Gavin thought it was the coolest thing ever and was very interested in figuring out how the cars were standing up.  Brooklyn, well she was precious walking from car to car trying to turn the wheels and not get sprayed by the paint.  

 

 We found this sign that was the hood of one of the cars and it was so appropriate for Easter weekend!

My parents helped the kids paint and were just as amazed as we were with all the cars!

Since it was Easter, we took time to do normal activities like dying Easter Eggs.  The kids were amazed how the eggs changed colors and had fun mixing different colors together.  A constant and I mean constant game the kids played with my mom was "hiding" eggs in the backyard and finding them.  They did this 10 times a day and it never got old to them!

Easter morning was a little hectic.  Between cooking and prepping lunch, making breakfast, giving the kids their baskets, opening and playing with all the new goodies, and then getting to church early, our morning was a little hectic, but still fun!  The kids were so excited to get new swimsuits and a few new toys.  Their favorite might have been the chocolate bunnies!

Our church had 2 services for Easter (and I was asked to perform the spoken word poetry again, and ended up combining bit and pieces of the two poems and shared it in between songs in the Easter service-- talk about being nervous, but all went well!) Between the services, they had a massive Easter Egg Hunt for all the kids.  Each age group had their own area around the church to search and the kids had a blast!  They were so excited for eggs and kept opening each one to see what was inside.  My favorite item they received.... free sno cone certificates at a local shop in town!!

 

After church and eating lunch at home, we spent the afternoon playing!  The kids hunted for more eggs, played pac an egg, and Gavin was in for a BIG surprise during egg toss when an egg thrown to him cracked!  He was shocked and decided it'd be a great idea to throw it at his dad! We laughed all afternoon and goofed off with the kids!

It was great having my parents come for a visit and getting to spend time together.  The kids always love when any of their grandparents are around and they get that special attention!  What a great Easter week to celebrate Jesus resurrection!!